FELĀḤAT-E MOẒAFFARĪ, the first monthly magazine in Persia dealing with agricultural issues. The magazine commenced publication four months after the establishment of the General Agricultural Office of Persia (Edāra-ye koll-e felāḥat-e mamālek-e maḥrūsa). The official publication of that bureau, it ran from Jomādā I 1318/August 1900 to Šawwāl 1325/November 1907 (nineteen issues in all).
The publisher was Mīrzā Mahdī Khan Faḵīm-al-Šalṭana, the director of the General Office of Agriculture, but the extent of his personal involvement with the magazine is unknown. Some consider Mr. Dascher, the Belgian director of the Faculty of Agriculture (q.v.; Tārīḵ-e bīdārī, ed. Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, II, p. 561) to have been largely responsible for this endeavor while others credit Āṣaf-al-Dawla (Ṣadr Hāšemī, Jarāʾed o majallāt IV, p. 88),. There is, however, no mention of either name in the magazine.
Felāḥat-e Moẓaffarī was typeset at the Imprimerie Franco-Persane or, at times, lithographed at the Ḥoqūq Printing House. The format was sixteen or thirty-eight one- or two-column pages, 18 x 22 cm. It rarely carried illustrations or advertisements. Subscription was 8 qerans in Tehran and 14 French francs in Europe. Copies are accessible at the Central Library of the University of Tehran and Cambridge University Library.
Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):
L. Bouvat, “Nouveaux journaux persans,” RMM 2, 1908, p. 248.
Browne, Press and Poetry, no. 267.
H. L. Rabino, Ṣūrat-e jarāʾed, Rašt, 1329/1911, no. 160.
U. Sims-Williams, ed., Union Catalogue of Persian Serials and Newspapers in British Libraries, London, 1985, p. 29.
Solṭānī, Fehrest-e rūznāmahā, no. 148.
(Nassereddin Parvin)
Originally Published: December 15, 1999
Last Updated: January 20, 2012
This article is available in print.
Vol. IX, Fasc. 2, p. 168
